In a libertarian society, I can sue if a factories pollutants make me sick, correct?

[idiom]

Heh, try maintaining a bio-security zone like New Zealand has. If someone lets a pest in, there is no way you can prove who it was and no way you can fix it.

 

[Brian Coulter]

Since they violated my property rights and all.

But could companies be required to keep some documentation because it could be much easier to hide something if they could destroy all the documents.

Do you really think you're being protected now? Think BP, the government helped them sweep an ecological castastrophe under the rug. Of course if you're a small business with no means to buy off/threaten politicians then you're fucked.

The EPA is just another tool in their chest used to control us.

 

[Brian Coulter]

As was stated earlier, as the industrial revolution began to take hold people started suing factories for polluting their air and their properties.

This created a small but growing industry of pollution detectives which would track the source of the pollution on one's property so that they could build up a good enough case to take on the factory.

Then these factories started getting tired of being sued for polluting so they turned to the government. The government stepped in and said "we will protect you from pollution with our regulations". They created an Environmental Protection Agency which would set standards on how much pollution a factory could create and fine them if they were not in compliance with those standards. They could still pollute but only within the legal guidelines, and if they went beyond those guidelines, the government got some money. Needless to say, this created a single location for the corporations' lobbyists to go to and gain favor and thus they were basically legally allowed to pollute from then on.

So thanks to the EPA, it is very difficult to sue a company for polluting and an industry of pollution detectives was squashed early before it could become economically feasible for most people.

winner